I bought 2kg of titanium dioxide from ebay a while back and I am thinking it is the most useless reactant I have purchased so far!
Is there anything interesting to use it for? I know there is a thermite reaction but i've not had any luck with that.
TiO2 is remarkably inert,you have to convert it to some soluble titanium compound.Titanium has a very interesting chemistry,especially in the Ti3+
oxidation state,it is colourful and interesting. You can use TiO2 alone to synthesize a beautiful blue sapphire in combination with FeO,it's not
easy,but I know one person on this Forum who has done it and had success with it!Otherwise buying chemicals on Ebay is a risk,a friend bought MoO3
there a while ago,which turned out to be actually limestone!Maurice VD 37 - 18-12-2023 at 01:17
Why did you buy a product that was known to be nearly useless ? What for ?j_sum1 - 18-12-2023 at 01:57
Not useless. TiO2 has an abundance of uses, mostly as a pigment. But it is inert.
I bought some for thermites a while back. Not terribly successful, but I think I was trying too small a scale.
Ti does have interesting chemistry. The complex with H2O2 is very interesting, and a good indicator of the presence of Ti ions. TiCl3 is a lovely
purple. However, unstable. It quickly hydrolyses in solution to TiO2. Pretty much all roads end in TiO2, which means the oxide is not a great starting
point.
I am going to throw out some wild guesses without reading or references. My guess is that the best way forward would involve fusing it with another
salt (NaOH? KNO3??)at high temp and see if you can convert it to something soluble. You could compare with methods for processing CeO2 which has a
similar 3+/4+ chemistry.
As with anything, the fact that it is unknown territory means there are opportunities for genuine experimentation.Fulmen - 18-12-2023 at 02:45
Placed it in a heap and lit it with a sparkler wrapped with magnesium ribbon (although it ignited before the magnesium so that isn't needed).
Quite a slow burn but and intense white light, unfortunately the titanium didn't pool into one piece.
[Edited on 5-1-2024 by Chemgineer]Bedlasky - 6-1-2024 at 10:59
TiO2 should dissolve in molten NaHSO4. At least according to literature.Twospoons - 6-1-2024 at 12:44
How about making a Ti4O7 electrode by partial reduction using C, H2 or Ti powder?
Its a bit of a technical challenge, needing temps of ~1000C, but the resulting electrode is reportedly quite robust chemically.
